“Don’t trust your colleagues”

“…thinking back, what makes me sad (and a little bit ashamed), is that the primary message was, ‘Don’t trust your colleagues.'”

The Last Weekend Of Mental Health Awareness Month: Watch This

Or: Guess who’s back. A little over two years ago, I heard of an old classmate working on a documentary project about bullying and discrimination in medicine. Longtime readers of this blog will know that I have written about bullying and discrimination before. The director and brains behind the project, Adil Khan, interviewed a few

Train your trainees

Sometimes, I think clinicians forget that they were inexperienced and under-qualified juniors once, too. There is nothing admirable about learning to place an intercostal drain on YouTube, without senior supervision, as many of us like to brag.

My Advice for Your ComServe Application

It’s almost time for the asynchronous community service applications in SA, and shortly thereafter the regular applications will begin. So I thought I’d take a break from dispensing medicine, and dispense a tip I could have used: Apply somewhere that is going to challenge you. Apply somewhere that you will be expected to work with

Questions on Blogging for Readers Past/Present/Future

I’m not really sure what my place is, these days. And whether it still is with this blog. I will forever be Barefootmeds, but will I continue to tread my footprints here? 

Funemployment, or a holiday?

It’s a week now since I’ve finished Community Service. I decided to take this week to organise my admin and recover from a long year. A holiday, if you will. Only, this time my holiday is unpaid leave. Oh, I do miss formal employment.

Are We Secretly Our Own Worst Enemies?

Maybe if we dropped some of those balls – dropped them so they clattered across the floors, and people stepped on them and tripped over them and they became a real nuisance – maybe then something would change. 

The Threat of Fun-employment

Applying for my first post-comserve job is a bit like the whole “what do I want to do when I grow up” crisis all over again.

DOC-U-MENTALLY: The Film [Review]

I had the pleasure of watching this film at a screening organised by JUDASA this past week, and I was glued to the screen (projector) from the opening shot. So was the rest of the audience. 

Why I Paed

Whenever I talk about my love for child health, and my intention to pursue it as a career, I get this kind of response:

“Oh, I could never work with kids. It just breaks my heart to see them suffer!”